Bitter blend: Blair blames Continental coffee

[DoYouEverWonder]

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=455592

21 October 2003

Tony Blair believes that he may have triggered his heart scare by drinking too much strong continental coffee at the European Union summit in Brussels last week.

Downing Street said Mr Blair started to feel unwell at 9.30am on Sunday, but it is understood that he felt "breathless" on Friday after returning to Chequers, his country retreat, from the two-day summit. He worked normally at Chequers on Saturday and felt fine when he hosted a monthly dinner there, but felt queasy on Sunday morning and a doctor was called.

A Blair aide told The Independent: "He is saying that he drank a lot of coffee at the summit. He obviously felt the need for it to keep him going. It is possible that he had too much strong, continental coffee. Perhaps he should have stuck to herbal tea."

<snip>

Doctors have said that Mr Blair's irregular heartbeat condition, called supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), can be triggered by stress, too much alcohol or too much caffeine. But Nicholas Peters, professor of cardiology at St Mary's Hospital and Imperial College in London, said drinking coffee may simply highlight the problem rather than cause it. He said: "Someone who does not normally drink coffee, then drinks a lot of it, may stimulate their heart in a way that causes this problem to be revealed. But it can come out of the blue as well."


That's the ticket Tony, blame the Europeans. Must be the coffee, this heart thing couldn't possibly have anything to do with stress, or all those lies you told, or W flipping out because he can't have a parade or even show his face in Parliment. Nah, must be that damn coffee those peans make.

[Flying_Pig]

1. My ass. He looks like a coke freak to me, expanded ego and all.

Could Blair be another drug abusing enocon?

:evilgrin:

[goforit]

14. Ah ha!!!.......There is more reason to support the Bushies!!!

This is there biggest money maker .........DRUGS!!!

There is a good reason they call Satan...
Poppy.

[MetaTrope]

15. Right, must be Colombian "coffee"

Nudge nudge, wink wink.

[nykiera]

2. Well the coffee definately could've contributed...

I have psvt...and am not supposed to have coffee, chocolate, or anything w/caffeine. Also, my doctor said not to drink carbonated beverages. However, I do think his is more stress related than anything else.

[foo_bar]

3. I blame the coffee too

ever tried chain-drinking strong coffee in a stressful setting? It's the definition of tachycardia.

[Tom Kitten]

4. Poor Tony...

Maybe they should find and prosecute the person who pointed a gun at his head and forced him to drink that coffee!

[grasswire]

5. say what?

When did he drink the coffee? He felt ill on Sunday. The half life of coffee:

". . . in the average adult non-smoker (and without any special pathology), coffee’s half-life is some 4-6 hours; in the case of smokers, it is 3 hours or less. It increases up to 18-20 hours during the third quarter of pregnancy, and it is about 13 hours long in the case of women taking oral contraceptives. Caffeine is biotransformed by the liver and metabolites are expelled almost completely by the kidneys and the urinary tract.

The threshold value over which caffeine intake could cause trouble is 10 milligrams per kilo weight a day (that is 550 milligrams for the average woman, and 700 milligrams for the average man). In Italy, the average per capita consumption is less than 2 small cups a day. This, expressed in milligrams, gives a total of 150, far away from both 700 and 550! Professor Silvio Garattini, Director of the Istituto Mario Negri, claims that "in the quantities commonly used in Italy, the ratio of 10 milligrams for each kilo weight would be reached; in the case of a man weighing 70 kilos, by the simultaneous swallowing of 7-8 small cups of coffee, each containing 100 milligrams of caffeine (one of the highest values for a single dose of Italian coffee - espresso or moka)".

http://sovrana.com/lib3.htm

[grasswire]

6. so even if he drank a lot...

.....7-10 cups, the caffeine would have been excreted long before Sunday.

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. So have we caught Tony

In another lie? Seems to be a habit with him the late couple of years. Especially since he hooked up with Georgie Boy.

[tridim]

7. What is it with these neocons

and blaming everything on something or somebody else? It's simple really, he's shitting bricks because he knows he's part of an international criminal enterprise, and it's causing stress.

Yes, Blair is a neocon, or at least a neocon sympathizer. I don't care what party he claims to be part of.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

9. That damned coffee IS too strong

you usually only get a demitasse worth so they pump it up to the max.
If Blair had anywhere near a full size cup then he was FLYING!

[0007]

10. Why do folks care?

Tony doesn't give a running fuck about the people and the lies he & junior told, 'eh? Let's give 'em some strong Starbuck coffee, like about two gallons tomorrow night.

Here's to your miserable fucking plight, Tony baby.

[BiggJawn]

11. So Blair thinks he's Cornholio now?

S'Yeah, right....

[Voltaire99]

12. No coffee, please. We're British.

Drink up, Tony.

[Nlighten1]

13. Tony Blair is a little Sheila....

Better lay off the coffee Tony, you wuss. :P